AnimEigo
AnimEigo is an American entertainment company that licenses and distributes anime, samurai films and Japanese cinema. History and location The company was founded in 1988 in Ithaca, New York by Robert Woodhead and Roe R. Adams, III. It is now based in Wilmington, North Carolina, and run by Natsumi Ueki, Robert's wife. AnimEigo was one of the original companies in the U.S. dedicated to licensing anime, after Streamline, and are considered pioneers in the industry, and helped give anime a noticeable following in the US along with Streamline, Central Park Media, U.S. Renditions, Pioneer Entertainment, and ADV Films. They are the last remaining "original" anime licensing company still in business, however, they have been letting more and more of their anime licenses expire without licensing any new titles in years, leaving some to speculate that AnimEigo is dropping out of the US anime industry. Name Their name is a portmanteau of "anime" and "eigo" (英語), the Japanese word for the English language. The UK affiliate was called Anime Projects, releasing many of AnimEigo's titles in the U.K. Releases Their first release, Metal Skin Panic Madox 01, was also the first anime to be commercially released exclusively to home video in the US which was not bound by the content restrictions of American broadcast TV or film. The company has released such titles as Urusei Yatsura, Oh My Goddess!, Vampire Princess Miyu, Gainax's industry/fandom sendup Otaku no Video, the original Bubblegum Crisis OVA series, and Kimagure Orange Road. They have also expanded into Japanese films that are live-action rather than animated; these are mostly classic "Jidaigeki" (samurai films) such as Zatoichi, Lone Wolf and Cub and the influential edited/dubbed version of Lone Wolf and Cub, Shogun Assassin (which AnimEigo completely reconstructed), but they also include other films such A New Love in Tokyo, a film about Japanese call girls. Their completed release of Urusei Yatsura is one of the longest releases of an anime series in the US market, with over 50 volumes total. Most of their English dubs were recorded at Coastal Studios and Swirl Recording, both in Wilmington, NC. In October 2013, AnimEigo launched their first Kickstarter campaign to crowdfund a new release, specifically to re-release Bubblegum Crisis as a limited edition Blu-ray. The Kickstarter was successfully funded in October 2013, and the Blu-ray was subsequently released in December 2014. In addition to Bubblegum Crisis, they have since run several other successful Kickstarter campaigns to produce similar limited edition Blu-ray releases, including Riding Bean, Otaku no Video, and Gunsmith Cats. Production values The company is well known for the quality of its translation and subtitles, and pioneered such techniques as multi-color subtitles, overlapping dialogue, and supertitles that explain important cultural, linguistic and historical tidbits. Alert viewers will often find subtle references to pop culture and current events hidden in the subtitles when they match what the characters are actually saying. Sometimes the references are blatant; in episode 18 of Super Dimension Fortress Macross, the dying Roy Fokker not only repeats the famous words of Mr. Spock from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan – "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few..." but adds Captain Kirk's reply – "or the one". AnimEigo also includes comprehensive cultural and linguistic liner notes with their releases. AnimEigo also licensed two Lupin III films: Lupin III: The Fuma Conspiracy and Lupin III: Legend of the Gold of Babylon. Because of legal issues surrounding the Lupin name (which was used by author Monkey Punch without permission from the estate of Maurice Leblanc), the titles were released as Rupan III (which is the romaji pronunciation of Lupin). Even after the Lupin name passed into public domain in the 1990s, AnimEigo continued to distribute the films as Rupan III. The North American distribution rights to both films were taken over by Discotek Media in 2006.New Anime DistributorAnime News Network Catalog titles Anime titles *''A.D. Police Files'' *''Bubblegum Crisis'' **''Bubblegum Crash'' *''Growing Up With Hello Kitty'' *''Gunsmith Cats'' (formerly licensed by ADV Films) *''Metal Skin Panic MADOX-01'' *''Otaku no Video'' *''Riding Bean'' *''The Dagger of Kamui'' *''Vampire Princess Miyu'' OVAs Samurai films *''11 Samurai'' *''13 Assassins *''Bushido: The Cruel Code of the Samurai'' *''The Lone Wolf & Cub Box Set—All six films **Sword of Vengeance'' **''Baby Cart at the River Styx'' **''Baby Cart to Hades'' **''Baby Cart in Peril'' **''Baby Cart in the Land of Demons'' **''White Heaven in Hell'' *''Miyamoto Musashi—All five films *Onimasa'' *''Revenge (Adauchi)'' *''Revenge of a Kabuki Actor'' *''Samurai Assassin'' *''Samurai Vendetta'' *''Shinobi no Mono—The first four films **Shinobi no mono'' **''Shinobi no mono 2: Vengeance'' **''Shinobi no mono 3: Resurrection'' **''Shinobi no mono 4: Siege'' *''Shinsengumi Chronicles'' *''Shogun Assassin—Now available on Blu-ray *Sleepy Eyes of Death—All 12 films are now available **The Chinese Jade'' **''Sword of Adventure'' **''Full Circle Killing'' **''Sword of Seduction'' **''Sword of Fire'' **''Sword of Satan'' **''Mask of the Princess'' **''Sword of Villainy'' **''A Trail of Traps'' **''Hell Is A Woman'' **''In The Spider's Lair'' **''Castle Menagerie'' *''Sword of Desperation'' *''The Blind Menace'' *''The Geisha'' *''The Great Killing'' *''The Loyal 47 Ronin'' *''The Samurai I Loved'' *''The Secret of the Urn'' Other Japanese cinema *''Black Rain—Also available as part of the ''Japan at War DVD Collection *''Father of the Kamikaze—Also available as part of the ''Japan at War DVD Collection *''Graveyard of Honor *''Japan's Longest Day—Also available as part of the ''Japan at War DVD Collection *''Metal Munching Maniacs—four MMM event videos **Robot Club & Grille Mayhem'' **''Robot Assault'' **''2003 Nationals'' **''Gourmet Damage'' *''New Love in Tokyo'' *''The Ballad of Narayama'' *''The Clone Returns Home'' *''Metal Munching Maniacs'' *''Tora-san—The first four films *Wakeful Nights'' Discontinued anime titles *''Arcadia of My Youth'' (now licensed by Discotek Media) *''Baoh'' *''Battle Royal High School'' *''Crusher Joe—OAVs and movie (now licensed by Discotek Media) *Genesis Survivor Gaiarth'' *''Kimagure Orange Road— OVAs, TV, and movies (now licensed by Discotek Media) *The Plot of the Fuma Clan'' (now licensed by Discotek Media) *''Legend of the Gold of Babylon'' (now licensed by Discotek Media) *''Oh My Goddess—The OVA series *''Shonan Bakusozoku: Bomber Bikers of Shonan *''Spirit of Wonder'' *''Super Deformed Double Feature'' **''10 Little Gall Force'' **''Scramble Wars'' *''The Super Dimension Fortress Macross'' (later released by ADV Films, under a sub-license from Harmony Gold USA) *''Urusei Yatsura—TV series, OVAs, and movies **AnimEigo did not have the license to ''Urusei Yatsura 2: Beautiful Dreamer—which, due to an odd licensing situation, went to Central Park Media, though AnimEigo did the translation, subtitling, and package design work under contract. *''Yawara! A Fashionable Judo Girl—TV series (AnimEigo only licensed episodes 1–40) *You're Under Arrest—OVAs and TV series Other discontinued films * ''Ashura * Battle of Okinawa ** Was also available as part of the Japan at War DVD Collection * Big Bang Love, Juvenile A * Demon Spies * Dora-Heita * Hissatsu * Incident at Blood Pass * Kon Ichikawa's 47 Ronin * Lady Snowblood * Lady Snowblood: Love Song of Vengeance * Mikogami Trilogy * Portrait of Hell * Red Lion * Samurai Banners * Shinsengumi * The Razor ("Goyoukiba") * The Wolves (1971 film) * Toshiro Mifune: The Ultimate Collection—Contains five films * Zatoichi—The first seven films ** Zatoichi Meets Yojimbo ** Zatoichi the Outlaw ** Zatoichi The Festival of Fire ** Zatoichi at Large ** Zatoichi in Desperation ** Zatoichi's Conspiracy ** Zatoichi Meets the One-Armed Swordsman References * The (mostly true) History of AnimEigo External links * AnimEigo * Category:1988 establishments in the United States Category:Anime companies Category:Companies established in 1988 Category:Companies based in Wilmington, North Carolina Category:Home video companies of the United States Category:Video production companies